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�PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, JULY 8, 1986
PAGE 17
Parliament will be weakened by the Single European Act••••" Two
leading experts•••state as their opinion [that] •.•it is �a step
towards establishing a European political union". In that case
why was not the act called "The European Political Union
Treaty"?
And why was not the change presented to Parliament,
and the puETI"c�s--ilan�t to Create a European-Super-State"?
'Tlie answer is that t�do"""'so would have-been to tell
the
truth;
and the EEC establishment, and our own government, know that
the truth would be much more difficult for the public to
swallow.
When Britain joined the EEC we had to accept that membership
would involve some limitations to our national sovereignty.
But the understanding was that•••any further limitations would
be carefully negotiated by us from a position of strength
within the EEC.
The symbol of this strength was to be our
national veto.
The essential point of the new treaty is to
abolish the natfonal veto over thewho'Ie range of sociaT
policy.... For the aE"solu� veto,
the new arrangement
substitutes what is called "qualified majority voting". With
the accession of Spain and Portugal, the number of votes adds
up to 76.
Britain, as a major member, has 10, no more than
Ireland, Greece and Luxembourg together.
Fifty-four votes
constitute a qualified majority. So Britain alone cannot block
a measure; it cannot do so even in conjunction with another
major member, such as West Germany, with which it has common
economic interests.
An
obvious .danger is that the members of the so-called
"Mediterranean bloc" will constitute the nucleus of a "natural
majority" in the EEC, which with the help of some UN-style
haggling will become an actual one, and turn Britain into a
"natural minority" member whose interests are consistently
overruled•••• The reference to the UN is not inapt, for there
the maintenance of the power of veto in the Security Council
has proved essential to the organization's continued
existence. If the veto had gone, the position of Britain and
the United States in that corrupt and evil Babel would long
since have become intole'raE,le...
-- ---
The EEC is morally and in almost every other respect a cut
above the UN. But it is now a big and far-flung body including
countries, such as Greece, whose past--and present--behaviour
should induce caution.
A close political union with such a
heterogeneous group, whose decisions can be imposeauporius:
against our will•••is something we shouldnot accept""without
full natiori'af""'aebate":'"" Indeed, I-i5"elieve we�ould not accept
it at all.
When will the British wake up to heed Johnston's warnings and decide that
enough is enough--and escape Europe's embrace before the final union is
complete? Finally, we present the views of another perceptive journalist,
William Pfaff, an American who writes from Paris for the LOS ANGELES TIMES
SYNDICATE.
Mr. Pfaff, in his June 23 column, draws attention to the
-latent power of Europe, slowly being tapped by its inch-by-inch unity
movement.